The Uglies
by Kashkounts
Summary: Mackenzie Albert Riley a.k.a. Mac, a budding teenager finds his world upside down after his city has been run down by ugly flesh eating monsters. He bands with a group of survivors in his quest to escape the city. But the uglies are not what they seem to be. And escaping the city is the least of their worries... How ugly can it get? Find out in this apocalyptic thriller!
1. Chapter 1

Tring ! Tring ! Tring !

As usual the school bell put an end to a rather boring day at school. Out of one of the class walked out Mackenzie Albert Riley a.k.a. Mac, a teenage boy with dark hair and brown eyes. Although he was lean, he had a tough body and his gaze was steady and sharp. A nike school bag hung on his back. If someone performed a background check they would find that his juniors had a lot of high regards for him. The reason behind this would be his hatred for bullies. He had saved his juniors from being bullied on countless occasions, often taking the heat on himself.

He walked slowly through the crowd of students and made his way out of the school, to the parking lot. He took out his Kros Evox BMX and rode it out onto the street.

The road was empty except for a few students which broke towards their home, leaving him alone on the boulevard. Soon an eerie feeling sat in and there was rarely a flicker or noise. The silence was broken by a couple of police patrol cars as they zoomed past him. It was rare to see police in this part of the city as their was hardly any population in this area.

But as he caught along the main road the scenario was completely different. The only bridge connecting the island city of Ursami with the rest of the country was so heavily laden with traffic heavy traffic that it looked as if the entire city was trying to cross the bridge. The booming horns of the vehicles hurted his ears and made his head ache.

Armed forces on both ends of the bridge were trying to keep the traffic going. He stopped a nearby officer and asked him about the matter. The officer was short and stubby and wore a dark shade. A M4 Carbine hung from his back. He was blowing his whistle with all his might to keep the traffic moving but it could rarely be heard over the traffic.

He blurted out, 'For some reason, the city is being evacuated. I don't know nothing else.' With that he continued his work.

Mac thought about his family. They could still be home, waiting for him to return. He could head out of the city or take his chances and go home. He knew it would not be the best decision but he headed home.

The streets were empty because most of the people had already evacuated the city. So, he rode as fast he could. After a couple of minutes he reached a bridge. His house was just a block away but he was panting so heavily that he thought he might be having a heart attack. So he stopped on the bridge to catch his breath. He was glancing at the sky when something caught his eye. If it hadn't been flying erratically then he might have dismissed it for a plane. The thing in the sky was skimming through the sky at an incredible speed. It kept coming nearer and nearer but Mac was too curious to move a muscle. And then he saw it, and he realized he had made a huge mistake. It was a bloody missile.

Before Mac could do anything the missile made a huge impact at some distance from the bridge. He could see a mushroom of fire rising from it but the worse was yet to come. The shock wave came a second later and it was powerful enough to send him flying down the bridge and into the canal below. The impact with water felt like the sting of a thousand needles, and he passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

He opened his eyes slowly, regaining his senses. The sunlight hurting his eyes. The Sun was almost over his head. As his senses came back to him he felt water gushing on his back. He turned around to see that he was caught in some steel pipes sticking out from the concrete sides of the canal. He turned back. He was not far from the bridge. He slowly took hold of the pipes and climbed ashore. But what he saw took him completely by surprise.

After that missile attack he thought that the city would have been levelled. But the city stood still like nothing happened. And for a moment he thought, 'Had he imagined it?'. Of course he couldn't have imagined it. His broken BMX and the eerily silent city were the witness of that something had surely happened. Something bad.

He scanned the horizon and luckily he saw some people at his right. He breathed a sigh of relief and started hoping towards them. The closer he got to them, more his instincts told him that something was not right. As he neared he observed that they were on their knees and were tearing something apart. When he saw what was it all he could do was stare in utter shock. They were eating a cat...alive. One of them had gripped its legs and the other were biting it apart.

Overcoming his sheer terror Mac slowly started walking back when suddenly...

"CRUNCH...!"

He accidentally stepped on a soda can.

Hearing the noise one of them turned towards him and what Mac saw next was the ugliest and grossest face he had ever seen in his entire life. The person was missing an ear and his entire face was covered in scars and pus. His hair had almost been uprooted from his head.

Soon all of them turned towards Mac, each with a more uglier face then the one next to him. And then suddenly they all started sprinting toward Mac, arms and mouths wide open. Mac's body had gone completely limp from fear. Somehow with great effort he started running away from them.

He was faster then them and after a few minutes sprint he had lost sight of them. He took a sharp turn and ended up in a narrow alley. He stopped and tried to calm down, taking a deep breath.

He knew what they were, didn't he? He watched a lot of movies. But here in reality, was it even possible. Mac really wanted this all to be a dream. A bad dream.

He sat there in grief. Still working on believing what had happened in the last few minutes. The images of their faces kept flashing, his brain unable to grip the reality. But he knew what they were, didn't he? He had seen enough of those movies but here in reality, it was just too much for him to take in, he felt his mind go blank and face itch as tears rolled down his cheeks.


	3. Chapter 3

Mac was the calmest of all the boys in his grade. He had maturity which was hardly found in boys of his age and this had won him the appreciation of his teachers. With time he was slowly starting to settle down. After all, he needed to think to survive.

But as his mind calmed down memories started coming back. What about his parents? Were they still alive? Had they made out of the city? He needed to find out. But can he even make it home. Not like this, he needed some stuff for that. And he just knew just the place for it.

It was few blocks away. It could have been easier if he had a car, but unsurprisingly nearly all the vehicles were long gone, during the evacuation. He walked along the street staying away from nooks and corners expecting something to jump at him anytime. He salvaged anything he could find and to his delight he found a rusty crowbar. The cold metal against his hand made him feel a little safe.

He had walked only a couple of blocks when suddenly out of nowhere came a shrill cry. He gazed around to see no one around. Another cry and he located its source, it was coming from an old building which one used to be the city hospital. He walked towards its entrance. He wanted to just walk away and be on his way but he felt sorry for whoever was in there and with that in his mind he open the door.

The inside was surprisingly clean and sterile. 'It must have been one of the first places to be evacuated after all,' Mac thought. Mac tiptoed down the aisle which was flanked by glass walls which gave insight into their respective rooms. He had walked a bare ten feet when he was met by the most gruesome scene of his life.

In one of the rooms lay a wheelchair with a pair of legs still strapped to it. The upper body was completely missing and bits of flesh and blood were strewn over the floor. Whoever the chair's occupant was, had suffered a horrible death. Mac fought back his urge to throw up. He turned his eyes away from it and swore revenge to whoever or whatever had done this.

The silence was broken by a distant thumping. Mac started towards its origin. As he paced up the thumping grew louder till he reached the storeroom. The noise seemed to be coming from inside. He leaned against the edge to take a peek. A wooden closet was lined up against the wall, and its was surrounded by about half a dozen of those creatures who were snarling and clawing at the closet. Mac figured out someone was probably holed up in it.

In the following moments Mac didn't knew what came over him. Without even thinking Mac charged at the nearest one. The crowbar landed right on top of its head and it went down with a satisfying crunch of its skull cracking. The next one wasn't so lucky the crowbar hit its jaw and sent it flying over. Mac jabbed the crowbar at its exposed mouth and it probably pierced its brain. The third one got it in the neck and fourth in the ribs. Seeing this the other two started shrinking towards the corner. Mac just hacked them open without even flinching.

When he calmed down all he could see around were spilled guts and teared limbs. He couldn't believe that he was the one who had done it. It almost made his blood curl. A thump from closet made him snap back from his thoughts. He gave the closet a cold stare and then while gripping the crowbar with one hand opened the closet with another.

At the bottom of the it sat a girl with a stuffed bear gripped tightly her tiny arms. He kneeled besides her and put his arm on her head. She looked up and shot a look at Mac. She had been crying but looked relieved to see Mac. He took her in his arms and assured her that it was ok.


	4. Chapter 4

With the night drawing in Mac had decided to spend it in the hospital. He had checked the hospital and had found no other uglies. Mac had once heard the word and it had just got stuck in his mind. He had to name them and uglies just seemed to be it.

A little further interrogation had given him satisfactory information. The girl's name was Aliesha and she was almost eight. She had been on a field trip with her classmates when the missile went off. In the scramble her teacher didn't do a head count and Aliesha got separated from them. When he asked about her parents he came to know that she was an orphan and had been staying with her uncle and aunt. As for Mac he just wanted to believe that his parents had already left the city when the missile struck and were somewhere safe now. He didn't dare think otherwise.

After seeing Mac fight those uglies Aliesha had decided to stick with him although he did frighten her a bit. Mac had agreed that once he collected the stuff he wanted they will pay a visit to her house followed by his own house. They found enough bottled water and canned food in the hospital to get them going for the day. The place was just a couple of blocks and after half an hour they reached it. Seeing the sign board Mac was almost flooded with euphoria. The sign board read: Military Camp. Trespassing is strictly prohibited.

Mac just couldn't hold back his laughter. Such sign boards were useless in this times, there so no law to bind them. Aliesha just gave him a puzzled look, not understanding what he was laughing on.

The camp's gate had been heavily guarded before, now it just lay open. But the gate was still huge enough to scare Aliesha and make her hid behind Mac. As they walked in they were just taken back by the sheer size of the camp. It was humongous and dotted with neatly lined buildings, all cover in sheets of grass for camouflage. A board with a map on it stood besides the gate. Mac gave it a quick look and found out what he was looking for, The Armory.

The camp was so huge that they took almost half an hour to find it. The building was also covered in grass but what made it stand out was the inch thick concrete coating surrounding it. A steel blast door provided the only entrance to the armory and it would have been impossible to breach them if not for the fact that they were already open.

'They must have left in a real hurry', Mac thought, seeing the open doors.

The duo stepped inside to be met by... nothing. Although the air was saturated with a mild aroma of gun powder, the armory was disappointingly empty. Then it hit him, during the evacuation the first thing they must have done was ship out the weapons to avoid them from falling in wrong hands. Mac cursed himself for not thinking it through. Aliesha just stared at him not knowing what they were doing here. After a thorough search of the armory all they could find was beretta M9 which must have been accidentally dropped.

'Well...Something is better than nothing', he thought.

The sun was already on their heads and they were getting hungry, so they decided to spend the afternoon in the camp to skip the worst of the heat. Mac also utilized the time to study the city map he found in the hospital. From what he could gather, Aliesha's home was a little far away, and to reach there they needed atleast one stop. He was willing to place his bet on the police station which he thought might be able to provide some protection. There was another deeper reason why he had chosen it, his father worked there and he hoped he might be able to find a clue of whether he had left the city or not.


	5. Chapter 5

As the evening set in, they took off towards the police station. Mac walked in front with the crowbar in his hands and the M9 in his backpack. Aliesha walked behind him almost hiding. She had started liking him a bit and she was not afraid of him anymore. He had kept her well, fed her and most importantly protected her.

By what Mac had estimated they would be there at the station in about two hours... If they don't encounter any uglies. They were walking in middle of the street, which were especially broad in this part of the city. If any of those uglies were hiding in the buildings they could easily spot them. Even if they encounter any their first choice would be to avoid them, Mac wanted to reach the station before it got dark any fighting would just waste their precious time and energy.

As expected they encountered a group soon enough. To avoid them they used an alley to go around the uglies. But after walking a few steps they found out that the alley was blocked too. Each time they took a roundabout the road was blocked, and before long they got seriously lost. The map proved to be useless as they didn't have the knowledge of their current location.

After trying for about an hour they were dead tired and it was getting dark. So, Mac decided it was best to find shelter and try to spend the night. They wandered for sometime and found a pharmacy with its shutter open. They went inside and pulled the shutter down. The first thing they did was search the whole place incase they were in for a surprise but they found no one.

They were tired and hungry and were quickly running out of supplies. So, Mac decided the first thing in morning they do will be to search the entire place for anything useful. For now, they just hoped that they could sleep peacefully on the cold hard floor.

Mac was woken up by Aliesha's screams. Apparently she had seen a nightmare and was unable to sleep. Mac calmed her down and told her it was okay. To Aliesha's surprise he even sang a couple of lullabies for her, she hadn't expected Mac to have a soft side too. Aliesha started trusting him even more, he was the only one who comforted her in this hell bent world.

The night came easy on them, and they got their much needed rest but they were still hungry. So, as decided they searched the whole shop and found and luckily they found some energy drinks and food pills but Mac would have given anything for some home food. But the best of all he had found a flathead axe which might have been kept for emergencies. The crowbar was blunt and heavy, compared to it the axe was sharp and easy to handle.

As sun came out from its hiding, the duo packed up their belongings. Aliesha had been particularly helpful and she was good at it. What struck Mac the most about her was her ability to adapt to the situation. Unlike what most children of her age would do, she was not being fussy and proved a worthy companion.

Just as Mac was about to lift the shutter Aliesha stopped her. 'Can't you hear it? There is something out there', she said pointing towards the shutter. Mac shook his head, 'Maybe you are just hearing things'. 'No, something's really out there', she said determinedly. Seeing her confidence Mac decided to take precaution. He opened up the shutter just a bit and kneeled down to take a peek. Aliesha had been right, the streets were filled with uglies.


End file.
